The choice to go with the 3DS was simple, according to the interviews. Originally, the PSP was chosen because it had a strong audience of Digimon fans. Not only was it powerful system, but it was also a system that had a large audience of children and parents. According to the developers, “We would love to see Digimon reach the 20-year mark. We would love to see Digimon last into the next generation, that after 20 years, parents and children can enjoy Digimon together.”

In expanding to a new system, the producer and director hoped to attract new fans as well as take advantage of the system’s functions to create a more in-depth game.

The two screens are used in Re:Digitize Decode to make choices such as in the training minigames as well as to input commands during battle. It is also where the new function the Digitter will be displayed. However, this was the least of the changes made for the 3DS version.

During the creation process, Tri-Crescendo and Namco had originally planned on doing a direct port. However, because both the director and producer felt this was a new opportunity, they decided to add as much content as time allowed—and they did it to the point that even they felt a “sequel” might fit better than just a port with “additional content”. Everything that’s new was created after the PSP game had been released, so even they felt that they had pushed their limits.

They attributed their success to the fact that, when they first worked on the PSP game, they were focusing on learning about Digimon and its existing material, while for the 3DS game they had already grown attached and were focused instead on making the game more “Digimon”.

This focus is also shown in the additional “Decode” in the title. Originally, it is “a program that decompressed data back into information,” whereas in this case, they used it to mean “to analyze a previous work and reconstruct it in a better incarnation”. In addition, it also refers to the new Decode function of the main character, which “reconstructs a Digimon’s soul [after death] and gives them stronger abilities”.

Thus, the original purpose of Digimon World Re:Digitize was to appeal to the core Digimon fans who had played the original Playstation game 13 years ago. Meanwhile, Decode’s goal is to focus on an enormous increase of content, on fine-tuning what already existed based off player comments, and on making changes the developers had wanted to previously, but couldn’t fit into the PSP game either due to space or time restrictions.

In addition, the creators hope to appeal to a wider audience. Previous Digimon franchises were aimed at a variety of audiences, down to as young as elementary students, but this time they decided to set their sights on high school students and higher, since “the majority of Digimon fans are now in their twenties”.

As such, they asked character designer Suzuhito Yasuda to create catchier, more unique designs such that players could tell the approximate age and personality of the character just from a glance. For example, for new character Rina Shinomiya, they asked for a “lively, active girl”.

I hope this one comes out in the us with digimon airing on tv soon both nick & Cw.

transferstudentx

and eu too dont forget about us we love digimon too right guys ?

Keima88

Yeah EU too but if its US only I will buy an NA 3ds special for this game. (And for rune factory 4)

Smooosh

Yeah, I’d totally buy it if it got released here in germany. :)

http://shadious.tumblr.com/ Vince

Amen. The recent re-airing of the dubbed 01 episodes was to rekindle hype and reintroduce Digimon to the US audience and market. Hopefully localization of this game would be officially considered in the future to help boost the franchise’s standing market-wise.

Renaldi Saputra

I hope the trademark filling by Bamco isn’t a lie

http://shadious.tumblr.com/ Vince

…But this time they decided to set their sights on high school students
and higher, since “the majority of Digimon fans are now in their
twenties”.

Hehehehe, I guess with that target age, Yasuda’s the man picked for the “appealing” character designs—Especially for the female ones.

Renaldi Saputra

but it’s CERO A.. what the hell, they said “for high school students and higher..”

Scrooge_McDuck

Target demography and age classification are two different things.

It means that they’re making a game that would be enjoyed most by “high school students and higher”, but there’s nothing in there that younger people shouldn’t see.

Renaldi Saputra

oh well, you’re right after all

Steven Higgins

Don’t forget Namdai, Digimon still has loyal fans in the West too. If you REALLY want to appeal to older fans, then give this to us already! Please!

I swear, August 1st Namdai. August 1st.

Renaldi Saputra

yea, even though the amount is not that much, we’re still loyal until now

Mecha_the_Hedgehog

Considering how well the dvds have sold there’s probably more older fans then you think.

Its so shocking when a Naruto game or Dragonball game get announced its barley an hour before its confirmed for western regions but any other franchise your lucky to even get a confirmation and worse yet your just left wondering if it gets a physical release let alone actually dubbed. I hate Namco Bandai so much.

Renaldi Saputra

That’s Namdai indeed :/

AuraGuyChris

I want my bizarro-Pokemon game now, damn you!

Logan Moll

I would love if we got this. Digimon is such an awesome setting for RPGs. The last few DS games were really damn good.

Jesse Torres

Localize it and I might believe him, oh and localize the other digimon game that one looks so nolstalgic.

SilentMC

Well I’ve always felt the original Digitize had too few Digivolution lines, and not much content so it felt somewhat incomplete. It’s nice to know these guys were given the opportunity to do that and more.

*hyped and waiting on my copy to arrive*

British_Otaku

Was the original game on the PSP good? I have a vague memory of Digimon as a child (liked Beyblade, Yugioh, Pokemon and Duel Master much more then, irrelevant but true) but I would enjoy an RPG on the lines of Dragon Quest Monsters or Pokemon.

My J-3DS is ready… >_>

Character designs in the game look good.

http://terracannon876.livejournal.com Laura

The original game on PSP was good. It was a bit on the easy side compared to the original PS game, but even so, it will provide enough challenge for a playthrough. (It sounds like they tweaked up the difficulty in the 3DS game so you won’t max out stats so easily.) It’s also really fun to adventure around. It really doesn’t play like any other game I’ve played.

Oh… But if you’re looking for classic “fight and raise monsters,” this is different. You train the monsters in the city, but the main goal is to explore, not to fight. Fighting is something you do on the side. It really does take up a lot of (in-game) time and energy. Basically, it’s more about the raising + exploring rather than the fighting + leveling.

British_Otaku

I can go for a game more focused on exploration and raising as long as the game has clear signposting of what I need to do (with 2 screens… no excuses) and the game isn’t too language heavy to push me back.

Would you say it is region friendly to a bloke to a guy who can follow arrows and read katakana REALLY slow? :P

Judging off what you and SilentMC said, it seems worth a look if I catch it for cheap at the very least. I could do much worse with anime RPGs.

http://terracannon876.livejournal.com Laura

The game is fairly writing-heavy. You have to know which training facilities to use, what attacks to use, and the battles are in real-time. I suppose you can fiddle your way through it by accustoming yourself to where things are…?

The game always has summaries on where you are and what to do next in a menu (in the PSP version, I mean). It also lists the quests you currently have running. You won’t ever get lost unless … well… It is text heavy. ._.

If you have a PSP, try googling the PSP version of the game. Make sure to include the subtitle since “Digimon World” refers to the Playstation game ^^;

Renaldi Saputra

I think it’s much easier..
I remember how hard it was when trying to get seadramon by fishing in DW1, even to get some fishes too.. in re:digitize it was kind of piece a cake to do..
and DW1 had an annoying quest, the Monochromon Shop.. was pretty fun, though.. you got extra money for it..
for colosseum battle, re:digitize was kind of simple and not troublesome.. there’s free battle and tournament, and you don’t have to wait for battle.. just enter and accept.. meanwhile in DW1, you can miss the tournament you’ve booked.. that’s kind of troublesome..

the only difficult thing in re:digitize was the opponents in colosseum started from 30f..

SilentMC

It’s very different from Dragon Quest or Pokemon gameplaywise. Your main goal in the game is to bring more Digimon to your city and make it grow, and usually to do that you need a strong Digimon to explore.

So you raise them tamagotchi style and when you’ve raised them enough you use the remaining time to explore until your Digimon dies (usually when you max them out you have about 3 in game days before they die).

It can be very time consuming and tedious in that sense, but if you’ve ever played a tamagotchi, you’ll get used to it. It’s a good game and given how this kind of monster raising game has mostly died out, it’s feels unique, since you have a JP 3DS I’d recommend you to give it a go.

British_Otaku

Raising a strong Digimon to explore and then there is a time limit till your partner dies… Sounds pretty dark, but it sounds interesting enough.

It reminds me somewhat of Phantom Hourglass (not a good example, it didn’t make exploration fun >_>)… I would probably hop on it if I knew that the environments to explore are big and fresh, which going with a monster raising title with 10s and 100s of guys…

I’ll see…
If there was a demo I would be more certain… I suppose I could get to using Youtube, but I like asking people more… >_>

SilentMC

Well your Digimon dies (you can only have one of your own at a time) and is instantly reborn as an egg where you reraise them from a baby again. And not really a time limit, just life expectancy (pretty short life).

I’d say the world is pretty big, which is a bit of an issue since your character’s run cycle is kinda slow. This is only an issue til you unlock more functions in your city though.

And to answer you question in the other comment, yes it’s easy to play without knowing much japanese. It’s just you may need to check online on what to do for some of the sidequests.

The PSP version has been out awhile so you can watch some videos on youtube for a general idea

Edit: And I forgot to mention, battles are kinda automatic. I know this can be a turn off to some people, you shout commands at your Digimon and it’s up to them how fast they’ll obey you or if they’ll listen at all. You can still use healing items on them and it’s pretty instantaneous, but it’s too expensive at the start of the game

Renaldi Saputra

the battle was kinda automatic indeed, but it’s no more when your digimon’s brain points had reached 600

Pokemon battle is about turning what was once weapons of war into friendly sporting matches. There’s snippets from the background that reveal how the world was a lot more chaotic in the past and used Pokemon in conflicts, but the modern day is peaceful.

That’s what makes organizations like Rocket dangerous, because they have that old world mentality. I wrote about it on my blog here:

and what’s the meaning of becoming a pokemon master? is that a selfish motive?

also why you said digimon is about jealousy? you seem don’t know much about it

AndyLC

Oh, I didn’t mean jealousy as a negative, Digimon embraces some tough themes for kids, such as feelings of abandonment (even divorced parents), dealing with death, and the frustration and seething anger of becoming an adolescent.

Like, you’d hope for an ideal happy ending for everyone, but the reality is that life is tough, but you gotta live it anyways.

The director of the first movie, Mamoru Hosada, is even lauded as the ‘Next Miyazaki’ for his ability to convey a fantastic, engrossing story.

To sum up the difference,
While Pokemon is about an eternal childhood and positive feelings, Digimon is about your precious few days of childhood passing by on your way to become an adult.

I really enjoy Digimon!

Renaldi Saputra

I see, I thought you were talking something bad (u did a typo)..

sorry for misunderstanding

Renaldi Saputra

so that’s the reason of first debut of LastTyrannomon and Titamon..
I see, in previous PSP version, there’s no new digimon introduced in the game, meanwhile a lot of new ones were announced in Decode and Crusader..

“the PSP version was to appeal the core of digimon fans who had played the original Playstation game 13 years ago”
“this time they decided to decided their sights on high school students and higher”

if that so, I still wonder why it’s rated CERO A rather than CERO B..

ShawnOtakuSomething

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づLocalization or (¬‿¬) un digitize

Renaldi Saputra

un digitize
lol

Daobs_

Any one knows how to contact the japanese offices of Namco Bandai?

We need to fill them with requests to release this in EU and NA.

J_Joestar

lol at how that Rosemon portrait art looks to be insistent on showing off her goods.

Kalis Konig

man there hasn’t been a streak this long of non-localized Digimon games in a while. This will be the perfect starting point to reintroduce the Digimon franchise especially since the new show and merchandise is coming soon.

XypherCode

I’d kill for this xD

zkan

is there really any possibility of localization? I don’t think so…

Vash bane

that rosemon O_O

Patrick Halpin

I have bought the game and a Japanese 3ds just for this game. they arrived in the post last week. the game is awesome I have the previous digimon game as well and this definitely feels more like a sequel. i’m bout 63% through it now and I still find out lots of new things. If it doesn’t make it over to the EU or America it would be very depressing. I honestly feel it’s a lot better than the original re: digitize or even the first Digimon World game. anyone know what the end of first weeks sales was on this game?